Hundreds of police push past barricades in Istanbul's Taksim Square and fire teargas and rubber bullets at protesters, forcing many into a nearby park. Bulldozers and rubbish trucks clear up barricades. Police remove banners and replace them with a large Turkish flag and a banner with a picture of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the secular republic

11.24pm BST

Summary

• Clashes between Turkish riot police and protesters were continuing late into Tuesday night after the authorities moved to clear Taksim Square using tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets. Police fired volleys of tear gas canisters into a crowd of thousands - people in office clothes as well as youths in masks who had fought skirmishes throughout the day - scattering them into side streets and nearby hotels.

An expat's view

An English language teacher living about six minutes walk from Taksim Square has been talking to me about what he saw there earlier this evening and about what it has been like to live in the city at this time.

As you'll hear from the interview, he's pretty sympathetic to the protesters, who include some of his students, but was reluctant to identify himself for fear of potential repercussions.

"There has been a lot less people on the streets tonight than in the beginning," he says.

Of his students, mainly aged in their late teens and from middle class backgrounds, he adds: "They are young enough to never have lived through many of the problems that their parents lived through in the 70s and 80s."

"...But like most people they just can't believe the lack of humanity that seems to be coming from the government or attempts to understand what the problems are."

Updated at 10.45pm BST

10.11pm BST

More demonstrators are currently moving into Taksim Square and a new surge of police is expected to drive them back, according to reports tonight.

A little earlier, heavy machinery was used by the police to clear barricades and the square was largely cleared.

However, thousands of people are still in the immediate area, including many hauling debris and other material to the 'frontline'.

Some more now from Istanbul's Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu, who claimed earlier that the lives of young people in Taksim are being put in jeopardy by “marginal groups that wanted to create disorder in Istanbul."

Using the type of language which will have many wondering whether the city authorities are serious about dialogue with the protestors, he added: "My responsibility is to look after all the youth that [are in Gezi Park]. There are serious intelligence reports that show there are security problems related to the lives of our dear children.”

From his vantage point, journalist Tim Pool has described this evening's clashes between police and protesters around Taksim Square as "like a tug of war".

Many police appear to have left in the past 20 minutes, he adds on twitter, and some water cannon trucks are facing away from the park, although the conflict is still ongoing.

Here's some video footage of what happened earlier today to one of those trucks:

Updated at 9.26pm BST

8.48pm BST

Rather than the protests in Istanbul, could Turkey's faltering economy be the factor which ultimately undermines prime minister Tayyip Erdogan?

The Turkish lira has dropped to an 18-month low since protests began, notes the Christian Science Monitor's Tom A. Peter, who adds that Erdogan's popularity has been tied to strong economic growth on his watch.

Stability has long been one of Turkey's most attractive features to investors. Without it, the nation’s economy could face growing challenges. These economic shortfalls may also erode support for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Updated at 9.26pm BST

8.28pm BST

Governor: Taksim operations to continue day and night

Istanbul's governor has just announced that police will continue operations in Taksim Square "day and night" until it is cleared, according to a snap on Reuters.

Seems like it's going to be a long night there.

"We will continue our measures in an unremitting manner, whether day or night, until marginal elements are cleared and the square is open to the people," Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu said in a brief television announcement.

Meanwhile Turkey's Medical Association has said that, as of late Monday, 4,947 people had sought treatment in hospitals and voluntary infirmaries for injuries, ranging from cuts and burns to breathing difficulties from tear gas inhalation, since the unrest began more than ten days ago.

8.00pm BST

Audio update

The major Turkish major news channels have been providing rolling live coverage of events in Taksim Square today for the first time, according to the Guardian's Constanze Letsch.

"It's not the same media blackout as before," she told me when we spoke a short time ago (listen below)

As for the possibility of protesters meeting Erdogan tomorrow, she too has doubts: "I don't know who woudl accept to meet him now under these circumstances."

"Promising talks and then doing this now is not very believable for many people".

Updated at 8.02pm BST

7.42pm BST

Is Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan really going to go through with a meeting tomorrow with representatives of the protestors?

A spokesman for Erdogan's AKP party said earlier today that the prime minister would only meet with those involved in "legal protest".

"It's very chaotic now and difficult to establish what is happening," Ziya Meral, a Turkey analyst based at the University of Cambridge, has told BBC News.

Meral adds that a number of those who were reportedly in line to meet Erdogan have now made it clear this evening that they will not bee meeting him tomorrow in the light of what has been happening today.

Updated at 9.23pm BST

7.32pm BST

Some extraordinary aerial scenes of Taksim Square at the moment, Here's a pic tweeted by journalist Tim Pool:

deplores the arbitrary arrest and detention of human rights defenders which is currently taking place in the context of the violent repression of peaceful anti-government protests across Turkey.

7.22pm BST

Clashes are still on going tonight in the Taksim Square area, where protesters have been setting off fire works and lighting bonfires.

It's been a long day of clashes. The Guardian's Constanze Letsch has filed a report on how events unfolded from early in the morning. You can read it here.

According to the Turkish Medical Association, almost 5,000 people have been wounded since demonstrations broke out more than ten days ago, and three people have been killed.

On Tuesday, several hundred people reportedly needed treatment in volunteer field infirmaries and hospitals, and at least one protester was said to be in critical condition.

Some wondered if the Gezi Park movement was in need of leadership to organise continued resistance. "This is a movement of civil society's dissent, and there are many groups with many demands and political views here," said Hamit Menemencioğlu, 21, manning a stand distributing food and water.

"Things might be easier if we had a leader, but many people here do not want that."

6.47pm BST

Dozens of police have been again been sweeping across Taksim Square this evening, backed by water cannon.

The owner of one of Turkey's largest publishing houses, Can Publishing, has written a piece for the Guardian in which he expresses the fear that the events of today and recent weeks may lead to civil war.

Can Oz also refers what he experienced in Taksim Square today, a few hours after police cleared the area:

The purpose of my visit to Taksim Square was to listen to the press conference the Taksim Solidarity movement had prepared; and I was confident that I could trust the chief of police and Istanbul mayor's assurance that the park would not be attacked.

Then, right before the press conference was about to start, gas rained down over our heads once again. It was a moment of crushing disappointment.

Coughing, wiping tears out of my eyes, practically blind, I realised that our government would never understand the meaning of the passive resistance that Martin Luther King Jr and Mahatma Gandhi were famous for. That's when I ran out of the park.

6.15pm BST

Meanwhile, Emre Peker of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones has some more on the detention of lawyers earlier:

Audio summary from Constanze Letsch

Turkish police have regained control of Taksim Square but were rebuffed by protesters when they tried to enter Gezi Park, Constanze Letsch reports from Istanbul.

"A lot people I spoke to were angry at what they saw as deception from the government, and the governor who had promised not to intervene in the park," she said.

There is much uncertainty and speculation about who was responsible for throwing petrol bombs at the police, she added.

Asked what could happen next she said:

The Turkish Communist party and several other parties and factions have called for a big meeting at 7pm Istanbul. I'm sure a lot of people will show up. Every evening was more crowded than the previous one. I'm not sure how the police are going to respond. We will have to see tonight.

Casualty clarification

A doctor in the emergency room at Sisli hospital, one of the largest state hospitals near to Taksim, said they had had about 15 casualties from the protests, mostly people overwhelmed by gas but one man who had suffered a brain injury, has undergone some form of treatment and is in intensive care. My guess is that he is the person reported dead by the first-aid tent.

Updated at 3.22pm BST

3.03pm BST

Lawyers

The number of lawyers arrested at the Çağlayan court appears to be rising with each report.

Lawyers

Special Forces Unit intervened in the protest inside the Çağlayan Courthouse and some lawyers fell to the ground. Around 100 lawyers are waiting in front of the police station demanding the release of their colleagues, Doğan news agency reported today.

Erdoğan's speech

Violent actions that took place in many cities of Turkey have camouflaged themselves behind the Gezi Park protests. I request all activists to see the big picture, understand the plot, and withdraw from the streets.

It also confirms that Erdoğan thanked the authorities and defended the operation.

What were we supposed to do? Kneel in front of these people and ask them remove the banners? How would those illegal rags be removed from public buildings?

Freedom and intervention in lifestyles are excuses used by the protesters. The hotels in Taksim are now 80% empty, the shopkeepers in Taksim are suffering – except the beer sellers. This is intervening with others’ freedom.

Dear youth, we overtook Turkey in dire circumstances and made major changes in difficult conditions. The freedom and democracy standards the young people have today could not be dreamed of 10 years ago.

About 10 people threw firebombs at the police vehicles. But they were bearing police guns. They were not protesters, they were civilian police – just to provoke people to attack police – but people didn’t do that. Actually they want to show protesters as violent people, but all the protesters left the square and went to Gezi Park.

He added:

Now it is quiet at the moment because the police vehicles have left the square. Their intention was to remove placards from the square. Police will not attack the park, the city governor has declared.

Oguz said protesters no longer cared what Erdoğan said.

He is always provoking people. At the beginning he named us ‘terrorists’ and ‘looters’. Then he said we were friends and brothers. For 15 days Istanbul and all the other cities of Turkey are facing violent police brutality.

Oguz insisted that protesters would remain in the park until two key demands were met.

Tomorrow the prime minister will have a meeting with representatives of the protesters. Our hope is that he accepts our demands. [The first demand is] that there will be no shopping mall in Gezi Park, and secondly that police brutality will be punished and there will be an investigation.

Most of the protesters will leave Gezi Park if those expectations are met. [If not] we will wait and defend our park here.

Provocateurs?

The Guardian's Luke Harding, who is on his way back from Istanbul, has more on fears that police provocateurs were involved.

There is widespread suspicion that many of the clashes between police and "protesters" have been faked, with social media suggesting that some of those throwing molotov cocktails are agent provocateurs.

Video footage on the website of the daily Hurriyet shows a small group of four of five "demonstrators" lobbing cocktails at police. But their attempts are suspiciously theatrical and inept – with the "demonstrators" at one point advancing in a hopeless Roman-style assault.

Turkish state media have broadcast footage of these encounters live, in stark contrast to the early days of the protests, marked by police brutality, which it failed entirely to report.

One of the activists in Taksim Square, Sevin Turan, has posted photos on her Twitter account showing one of the throwers. He is visibly balding, wears military-style khaki clothing, and bears no resemblance to the thousands of demonstrators who have peacefully occupied the square for the past 12 days.

Update: Sevin has since made clear that she was not in the square at the time.

Luke adds:

The throwers don't even remotely resemble the protesters I've spoken to and interviewed over past week, plus state TV had been tipped off and was there at 6am to cover the encounter.

Updated at 4.04pm BST

10.21am BST

Erdoğan's speech

The prime minister, Erdoğan, is giving another defiant speech to the Turkish parliament. He again accuses protesters of "twisting" environmental concerns about the park. He claimed 95% of the protesters in the park had never heard of the area before the protests.

He described protesters' banners draped on public buildings as "rags".

"If my reaction is considered too tough, then I'm sorry. I am Tayyip Erdoğan, I can't change that," he said.

He thanked the police for clearing Taksim Square and removing "rags" on the Atatürk monument.

Updated at 11.08am BST

10.06am BST

Provocateurs?

There is a suspicion that some of those who threw petrol bombs today could have been police provocateurs, according to Nick Hobbs a British concert promoter who lives close to Taksim Square.

My guess is they've used this excuse of cleaning up the Ataturk cultural centre and monument in the middle of Taksim as an excuse to test what happens if they clean the whole square.

The main issue is whether the people who threw the molotov cocktails this morning were provocateurs or demonstrators of some kind. The park people completely disown that kind of violence. They don't want to anything to do with it and try to stop it.

The social networking sites are saying they were police provocateurs, but who knows.

Some of the rioters, or whatever they were, were chased by teargas.

I just visited my friend in hospital because she got hit by a teargas canister last week. I saw a policeman being bought into hospital with a head injury.

A petrol bomb is thrown at riot police in Taksim Square in Istanbul on Tuesday. Photograph: OSMAN ORSAL/REUTERS

9.19am BST

Human chain

Attempts by protesters to form a human chain appear to be faltering according to journalists in Istanbul.

AKP plans curb on Twitter

The ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) has vowed to begin censoring Twitter in an effort to curb "dangerous" slander, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reports.

It quotes Ali Şahin, the AKP’s vice chairman of media, as saying:

A tweet containing lies and slander is much more dangerous than a vehicle loaded with a bomb. The explosion of a vehicle loaded with a bomb would be limited, but a tweet filled with lies and slander can lead to a climate of conflict. If the situation is serious, necessary precautions must be taken.

Police pledge

The local governor said police had no intention of breaking up the protest in adjoining Gezi Park, Reuters confirms.

"Our aim is to remove the signs and pictures on Atatürk statue and the Atatürk Cultural Centre. We have no other aim," the Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu wrote on Twitter. "Gezi Park and Taksim will not be touched."

Police hung a single Turkish flag and a picture of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from the building.

Crowd control vehicles fired water cannon against groups of protesters who threw stones, fireworks and petrol bombs at the police. Nearby, hundreds more protesters, wearing face masks to protect against the effects of teargas, gathered on steps leading from the square to the park.

"Every place is Taksim, every place resistance," the protesters chanted.

Police appealed to the demonstrators not to attack, calling from loudspeakers: "Dear Gezi friends. We are unhappy with this situation. We don't want to intervene. We don't want to harm you. Please withdraw.""If you don't throw rocks or bottles we will not intervene. Let's quit fighting," a police officer called out as clashes continued.

A protester throws a petrol bomb as Turkish riot police fire water cannon and teargas during a protest at Taksim Square in Istanbul. Photograph: Osman Orsal/Reuters

Updated at 9.23am BST

8.41am BST

Live TV footage from the BBC shows a JCB moving makeshift barriers from Taksim Square as police fire more teargas canisters.

Meanwhile, the Guardian's Constanze Letsch reports that protesters have formed a human chain around the square.

Audio from Gezi Park

This morning hundreds of police marched on to the square. There have been teargas attacks in some corners of the square. The protesters tried to defuse guys throwing things.

The police have made public announcements saying they are not going to raid the park, they are just going to clean up the square. But right now they just teargassed the front steps of Gezi Park. So a lot of people are being gassed and are now coughing inside Gezi Park. It is an atmosphere of massive confusion.

Protesters don't think they [the police] are sincere after yesterday's promises. Protesters are afraid that they are going to clear the park.

Police have surrounded Taksim Square, but banners and tents remain, she said. One of her colleagues estimated that up to 5,000 protesters remained in the park.

A protester runs as Turkish riot police fire water cannon and teargas during a protest at Taksim Square in Istanbul on 11 June. Photograph: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

Updated at 8.29am BST

7.53am BST

Summary

We will be following events throughout the day as Turkish riot police clash with protesters after more than week of anti-government demonstrations in Istanbul's Taksim Square.

A protester throws a petrol bomb towards riot police during clashes in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey. Hundreds of police in riot gear forced their way through barricades in Istanbul's central Taksim Square early on Tuesday, pushing many of the protesters who had occupied the square for more than a week into a nearby park. Photograph: Kostas Tsironis/AP